Firefox 32 – a Test in Slackware

Posted: 16 September 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Browsers, Slackware | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Slackware64 14.1 runs the Firefox 24.x ESR (Extended Support Release) out of the box. Over at Scot’s Newsletter Forums, I commented about how I got a chance to see FF 32 in Win 7 on my cousin’s laptop that I was working on earlier this evening. It looked identical to Chromium/Chrome.

Well, I found a SlackBuild script and the source for FF 32 in the Slackware Current repos. COOL! I’m compiling now…

Whew! We’re burning up some CPU cycles in all four cores to compile this baby. It’s been going for over 30 minutes now. It better not error out on me after all this time.

Still building…

Well, that was some compile. On this relatively fast quad core machine it took 1.5 hours to build this app from source. Wow!

Anyway, it’s built and installed in my Slackware now. I’m not so sure I like it. In appearance, it’s a lot like Chromium/Chrome. However, in leanness and efficiency, it’s a totally different beast. Sadly, the old-fashioned extension methods in FF are a bit primitive compared to the slick Chrome Store addon process. Also, the old FF Sync does not work. You have to create a new FF Sync account to use it with FF-32.

I set this new FF up to be quite close to my Chromium/Chrome browsers. I used the very same or similar extensions. I also used my mini-custom dial home page. I have the preferences set up in a similar fashion. There’s still some work to do. I’ll play around with it a bit more tomorrow, maybe. Here’s a look…

Sadly, like I said… it looks like Chromium/Chrome, but it ain’t them. Looks are deceiving.

If you run Slackware and want to try this baby out, a word of advice… you’ll need a good bit of free RAM and a fast processor to compile this from source. The slower your processor, the longer it will take. Be patient.

You can get the FF-32 source tarball and the SlackBuild script in the Current repos on your favorite server. Here’s the server I used…

ftp://slackware.oregonstate.edu/pub/slackware/

You’ll find it in: /pub/slackware/slackware64-current/source/xap/mozilla-firefox/ – 64bit or
/pub/slackware/slackware-current/source/xap/mozilla-firefox/ – 32bit

You know the SlackBuild routine by now, but just in case:

  1. add source tarball and the SlackBuild script to a temp build directory
  2. make the script executable – #chmod +x {script name}
  3. run the script – #sh {script name}
  4. once it’s built (it’ll take some time – go have a smoke, eat some dinner, walk the dog), you’ll find the .txz in the /tmp directory.
  5. to install – #installpkg {package name}.txz

That’s it. Have fun! 🙂

Later…

~Eric

Today’s Featured Distribution – Foresight Linux

Posted: 6 February 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Linux, Other Distributions | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Once upon a time, when I was a relative newcomer to GNU/Linux, I found a wonderful little distribution, which was also new at the time.

Tomas Forsman, a member of the Foresight Linux team, probably doesn’t even remember me from back then. I frequented the old support forums for Foresight Linux back when it was in version 1.0. I think that was sometime back in 2006. I remember FL creator Ken Vandeen from back then. I found Foresight, a fork of rPath Linux, while perusing Distrowatch one evening. It looked intriguing. Besides, I liked the green color theme. Green is my favorite color, you know.

I’ve had Foresight on many of my systems over the years since v1.0. It’s never been my primary operating system. You all know that I’m a Slacker, but that doesn’t stop me from experimenting with other distros. I have my favorites that are never far from one of my systems. I can usually be found tweaking (often breaking) these distros on any given day.

I did a major system overhaul a year or so ago and never was able to get a working copy of Foresight installed. It wasn’t Foresight’s fault, though. Tomas knows that I’m an Xfce fan, so he provided me with an alpha of their Xfce version. It didn’t seem to like my hardware for some reason. Well, that was a while ago, anyway. Their Xfce 64 bit version is in final release now and installs and runs perfectly.

I know this because I just installed it  a couple nights ago. I didn’t have any issues during installation. For any of you who have ever installed a GNU/Linux distribution on your system, you’ll not find any surprises with the Foresight installer. It’s pretty straight-forward and relatively easy.

Once I had FL installed, I did my usual tweaks here and there under the hood and with the Xfce interface. All went well. I have a completely updated and usable Foresight Linux installation on my system now. I made a quick custom wallpaper for it and took a nice screenshot for you folks.

If you’d like to give Foresight a tryout, you’ll find that the distribution has excellent documentation and a helpful support community. Tomas also visits Scot’s Newsletter Forums – Bruno’s All Things Linux quite often. You can catch up with him there occasionally. Foresight is a stable, full-featured distribution with a sterling pedigree (RedHat, rPath). It’s suitable for a home system or a business server.

Stop on by the Foresight forums. Tell Tomas I sent you. He’ll get you up and running with Foresight in no time at all.

Have fun with it! 🙂

Later…

~Eric

Image credits: Foresight Linux “eye” logo owned by Foresight Linux.

Slackware for the Laptop

Posted: 13 October 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Slackware | Tags: , , , , , , | 4 Comments

I run Slackware 13.37 w/ Xfce on my laptop. It works in its typical Slackware way… perfectly.

I was perusing my favorite blogs this morning and ran across a gem by Barnaby at Linux, BSD, and Everything Else. He’s running Slackware on his lappy also.

I’ve got Slackware 13.37 on a partition on my Acer Aspire 5551, with ATI/AMD HD 4250 graphics, an AMD Phenom X3 2100MHz, plenty of ram and Broadcom wired and wireless chips for network connectivity.

His machine’s a bit newer than my Dell Inspiron 1521, but that doesn’t matter. Slackware works well on older systems, too.

The only major issue facing Linux users these days, except perhaps printing, is wireless networking and sometimes even getting wired connections to work.

Hmm… well, I’ve never had any issues to speak of regarding printing in Linux. My HP printer is well supported. Drivers have never been a problem. CUPS is a wonderful thing, also. As far as wireless networking goes, I did have some minor issues getting my lappy set up and running. However, wicd is wicked good! 😉

In the end it depends on which philosophy you want to subscribe to. Choose your BDFL- Mark, Clem, Texstar or Patrick. Mint or Slack.
Of course you can struggle with Debian or build your own with Crux or even LFS, but the emphasis here is on easy and simple.

A very well written and interesting article. I recommend you read it in full at Barnaby’s site.

On another note… I must apologize for my recent scarcity. I just haven’t been feeling too techie lately. I’ve been catching up on my fiction reading and vid gaming; even catching something on the telly now and then.

I shall return…

~Eric